New Horizons
by Farelios
Summary: Space have always beaconed explorers, attracted pioneers and called for thrill-seekers. But for true heroes, it is the Grimm-infested planets that provide challenges for the worthy. So when the newly discovered Pandora entices with hidden secrets, many will answer the call of adventure and loot. RWBY/Borderlands fusion, because it makes so much sense that way.
1. Arrival

Managing the Schnee Dust Company across six galaxies was quite a challenging job, what with the backstabbing, shootouts, and occasional attempted coups, but president Jack Schnee managed admirably, if he could say so about himself. It also involved a lot of paperwork and supervision for the bumbling idiots that worked under him, but most of those duties Winter took under her own care, leaving him only with a modest stack of papers on the desk requiring his personal attention and signature. T-bone Junction could live another month without medical supplies, however, which was why Jack spent the time with his favorite game of "whack-a-Faunus" on his ECHO scroll, instead.

That was, before a sudden urgent message ruined his streak and beeped incessantly until he looked at the pictures within. The familiar purple glow instantly banished all aggravation from his mind - this was the day he was waiting for. A speed dial later and Winter's face appeared on his terminal.

"Talk to me, angel, I need information, and I need it yesterday." His fingers fluttered over the virtual keyboard, transferring money and personnel, sending alerts and mobilizing the company's finest.

"It may take a while to fully process the data, but the preliminary orbital scan confirmed non-human ruins on the recently discovered planet tentatively designated "Pandora". The markings on visible surfaces are reminiscent of those found on Eridian artifacts." His daughter appeared distracted, no doubt outpacing countless AIs in her work to quietly and efficiently help him with that brilliant mind of hers.

"Their homeworld?" Even the scraps of Eridian technology found elsewhere possessed immense power and boosted innovative design for mankind. The kind of things that may be found at the point of origin...

"Hard to tell at this point, but they inhabited it for some time for sure."

"And the Grimm population on the planet?" There was always a catch, and soulless monsters hell-bent on destroying humanity would definitely qualify.

"Unknown. Space surveillance failed to notice any large examples, so it's not easy to make a prognosis."

"What _did_ it find?"

Instead of an answer, Winter directed a drone log onto his terminal. 18:07 Remnant Vale time, Tuesday, the scouting drone stumbled upon energy and mass readings of a potentially habitable planet. 18:11, the fast-travel unit was deployed and connected to the network. 18:42, a basic space station digistructed around the drone and it's beacon lit up. 18:43, the ruins were detected by on-board equipment. Jack glanced at his own clock, reading 18:49.

"Tell me we're not wasting time, angel." He paged through the images, instantly recognizing that unmistakable violet hue. His blood boiled at the mere thought of it at his fingertips.

"Already dispatched Wilhelm and the assortment of Loaders to secure the station for SDC. We should be careful when choosing the Hunter team to make planetfall, though. Not everyone is trustworthy enough to use there."

"You're a miracle worker, angel. I'll handle it from here."

He closed the call, moving quickly through the list of his current assets. His daughter was right, as usual; he and SDC personnel under him used all kinds of scum for their dirty work and encouraged backstabbing and treason within the company ranks. It kept Jack's own opposition on the board disorganized and powerless to meddle in his more... delicate affairs. As his eyes slid down the list, however, he couldn't suppress a growl of annoyance. Even his new girlfriend would sell him out at a drop of a hat (a stylish, beautiful cowboy hat). Wilhelm was already in, with his prototype Paladin mech and a whole compliment of supporting Loaders fully engaged. He closed the list with disgust as it ended and no more names caught his eye.

A brief check revealed that all status updates from the Pandoran space station appeared lost for the last ten minutes - _his baby girl hard at work_ , Jack thought with pride. Still, it only marginally delayed the other companies from finding out and taking action; he needed someone on the ground and digging up ancient alien artifacts right the hell _now_. And for the engineers to work safely from Grimm attacks he needed a team of Hunters or equally skilled personnel to protect them.

Hiring from the government network would bring a plethora of its own issues - namely, any artifacts he'd find would be confiscated by the councilmen to gather dust in their offices, instead of Jack's. He needed someone loyal to him, personally, for this kind of a job.

...That didn't leave him with much of a choice. With a sigh, he dialed his _other_ daughter.

* * *

"...and I present to you my team," the red girl next to Weiss coughed, and she amended, "our team, RWBY".

Jack looked critically over the famous students of the renowned Beacon academy. For someone who foiled and dismantled a huge terrorist organization, they didn't look like much. Sure, the red girl had enough orange SDUs on her waist to outfit an elite strike force, and the yellow one appeared more buff than Wilhelm, but they still were teenage girls, for God's sake. He could feel his dignity slowly peeling off as he imagined other mega-corps finding out about the "best of Schnee" and promptly made plans for some outrageous diversion. A living diamond horse moved up his list of priorities; let those dumbasses wreck their tiny brains looking for a hidden meaning of _that_.

Still, RWBY somehow managed to take on a teleporting Siren and come out of it alive and victorious. Anything he would find on Pandora, they could handle.

"Introductions are in order, I think," Jack struck a heroic pose. "I am the leader of the Schnee corporation, the most brilliant, educated, virtuous, upstanding and striking man in six galaxies. Handsome Jack, at your service!" He half-bowed with hands spread wide.

Judging by the blank looks on their faces, no one appreciated the effort he put into that intro. He would have to talk with Weiss again about the abhorrent company she keeps after they're done on Pandora. Seriously, what could possibly attract someone of her station into the lair of brutes and degenerates that is a Hunter academy?

"I am talking to you now, because I, Handsome Jack, wanted you, personally, overseeing one of my projects of great importance. Ozpin agreed to help me out on this, so off with you." He ended the briefing by sending a fast-travel location to their ECHO scrolls and terminated the call.

Next was a note to headmaster Ozpin that he borrowed Weiss and her team for a while; it wouldn't do for them to ask around and find out he lied about that part. Covered on Beacon front, Jack texted Patricia Tannis next - his slightly unhinged, but insanely knowledgeable xenomorph expert - that she was about to get four bodyguards and a new assignment shortly. Loose ends tidied up, he directed his attention back to Pandora.

Wilhelm had finished his task and busied himself with overseeing the arrival of Jack's turbo-mansion into Pandoran orbit. An awesome space station in the form of a giant "S" would make an excellent base of operations and punctuate his claim over the new world at the same time. Come to think of it, he should open the local fast-travel station to Tannis, Weiss, and... damn, he forgot to ask those others their names.

A quick ECHOnet search solved that problem for him. Team RWBY had it's own moment of glory and got their names etched into the annals of history.

The red kid was named Ruby Rose and had been earnestly gushing about storybook heroes in her interview (totally fake, she completely failed to admire _him_ when he talked to Weiss); she loved seeding the area with Longbow teleporters and zipping around the battlefield with a wicked-looking sniper-scythe.

Next was Weiss, and he skipped that part; the annual nine-digit bills for esoteric Schnee Dust munitions have told him more then enough about his stray child.

Blake Beladonna was interviewed after that, a silent type with a printed book fetish. Considering her Faunus heritage, with an overwhelming majority of the creatures illiterate, she was a walking miracle. Blake mixed corporeal clones with holographic decoys and an invisibility suite to great effect, confounding her opponents and then backstabbing them with a custom-made blade when they were distracted. A girl after his own heart, if her parents weren't savage beasts rolling in their own filth in his Dust mines on Grimm-infested planets.

The last one had a fancy name of Yang Xiao Long, and strived for a very alluring lifestyle of kicking pendejo's in the nuts across all inhabited galaxies. She put her knees where her mouth was and had an impressive list of men and women with acute perineum pains left behind her. Overabundance of muscle on her hot lithe figure had made sure that few seeked retribution after, and those who did were never heard from again.

 _Yes, those Huntresses will do_ , he thought as he quickly typed the names into the system, _time to get to work._

* * *

"THIS IS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT BY TORGUE CORPORATION. THIS IS MISTER TORGUE, AND I AM CURRENTLY CASTING FROM THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON ELPIS OF THE PLANET PANDORA. I HAVE RECENTLY DISCOVERED THAT PANDORA HAS ERIDIAN RUINS ON IT, AND WE HERE AT THE TORGUE CORPORATION SINCERELY BELIEVE THAT IT'S F*CKING AWESOME! ALSO, I AM REALLY HUNGRY AND SOMEBODY SHOULD BRING ME A SANDWICH. END OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT."

* * *

The unmistakable glow of the digistruct technology heralded the arrival of a new group of miners, scientists and guards into his mansion. The fast-travel station was working overtime to bring in everyone and everything involved in the expedition. The expedition that currently did a whole lot of _nothing_ , because the damn planetfall was just not happening. Jack grit his teeth and pushed his way out of another area full of slackers and imbeciles, trying to find a quiet place to make a call.

"This is all so frustrating," he growled. "Why it doesn't work, angel?"

"I'm not sure. The readings from the planet surface are scrambled by unknown..."

"Who cares about the goddamn readings, just stuff those troglodytes into supply crates and shoot them down!"

There was a 'clang!' and a series of 'thoom!'s, as a ship-grade rapid-fire accelerator cannon loaded and shot a number of unwieldy projectiles in the general direction of Pandora.

"See? That wasn't so hard. Why am I supposed to do _everything_ around here?"

"Because out of every human gathered here only you have your Aura unlocked and could survive the landing?"

"No, because out of everyone gathered here I'm the only one who knows how to use his head for something other than stuffing food in and spewing bullshit out."

There was a pause.

"The Loaders have arrived mostly undamaged, Jack. Scanning... possible location for base camp found. Deploying." Another 'thoom' rang through the turbo-mansion. "You should prepare for planetfall, yourself."

"Everything, I tell you," he grumbled on principle alone, but obediently moved back to the fast-travel unit. "Love you anyway, baby."

"You still need an escort. The Hunters you were bringing in?"

"Should arrive any moment now."

"Good. I'll arrange for scouting and intel." Winter hung up on him. Another series of 'thoom's echoed throughout the station as more and more robotic Loaders were fired down.

The chamber lit up again as a quintet of people were digistructed into the room.

"...while I thank you for your inquisitiveness - a mental state unbeknown to the majority of the human population around my office on Eden Five - the dry-heaving was entirely caused by our unwanted social interaction and shall pass as soon as you remove yourself, and the rest of your group, from the vicinity of my own person," a petite woman in her thirties with a couple of chairs tucked to her sides declared to the rest of the newcomers. The left chair had one of it's legs broken. "Also, as you've undoubtedly noticed, we have arrived. If you didn't, you have much more pressing concerns to address right now. Either way, it would be an excellent time for you to depart, and for me to settle in with my ceiling chairs."

Jack made his way over.

"Actually, Patty, I want you down there, to be one of the first to reach the Eridian ruins. So those four girls? Are your company for the foreseeable future. I advise finding me my artifacts _very_ quickly if you wish to get rid of team RWBY anytime soon."

"Absolutely unacceptable! My beloved Clork had a recent injury and would need time to heal in peace." She shoved the broken chair under his nose. "And if you have a problem with my non-standard living arrangements, you can take it up with Phillipe!" She swung the other chair at him, but Jack was faster. He grabbed it by the leg and wrestled it from her hands.

"I have a rotary saw and I'm not afraid to use it." He menaced and loomed over Tannis until she shot a trickle of blood from her nose and passed out. Jack thought for a moment to wreck the chair anyway, but no one present and conscious would notice or care. Also, he was a hero, and heroes show mercy. So he dropped the chair on top of the prone woman and turned to his other guests with a wide grin on his face.

"Welcome to Pandora, kiddos!"

* * *

 _So, you want to hear a story, huh?_

"Clang!"

As the supply crate rose towards the accelerator, team RWBY had some time to reevaluate their life choices.

"Clink!"

Not that they did. When the fast-travel failed again to deliver them towards the surface, Jack grew impatient, and did the thinking for them.

"Bam!"

The president of the Schnee corporation ordered a few robots out of a supply crate and welcomed the girls in.

"Clank!"

They happily agreed, because it was not every Tuesday that they managed to drop onto a planet from high orbit.

"Thoom. Thoom! THOOM! THOOM!"

 _Ha, I've got just the story for you!_

Little did RWBY know, as the crate accelerated at the bone-breaking speed, unimaginable forces gathered and mobilized all over the inhabited galaxies.

Little did they know, that Salvador Xiao Long grew concerned over the lack of pendejos complaining over perineum pains and his daughter, not necessarily in that order. A quick check found a complete absence of Yang's New-U resurrection updates for the last half-hour. His concern spiking, he called his old family friend, Mister Torgue High-Five Flexington.

Little did Salvador know, that Mister Torgue was bored to tears, because ninety-seven percent of living things around him were not exploding at that moment. So he decided to check on Yang's last travel vector himself in his space-truck.

Little did Torgue know, that his PSA, meant to bring him a sandwich, would instead urge all the major and minor corporations in six galaxies to gather their elite strike forces in a desperate rush towards Pandora.

Little did they know, that general Ironwood from Atlas corporation was already prepared to deploy his Crimson Lance, because someone had stolen his prototype Paladin mech.

Little did James know, that a soldier of the Crimson Lance would find someone he swore to kill in his new unit and desert the Crimson Lance soon after the murder.

Little did Roland know, that his future girlfriend was itching to repay RWBY for her defeat and was already on her way to Pandora.

Little did Raven know, that a thief she left for dead survived and vowed revenge on her.

Little did Roman know, that the pilot he hired was in truth a pirate, anxious about the goddaughter she gifted the decoy module to on her seventh birthday.

Little did Scarlett know, that a Dahl corporation military vessel would digistruct in the middle of her planet approach vector.

Little did Axton know, that his day would become much more hectic as soon as a pirated yacht would smash into the barracks side of the military cruiser.

Little did Tungsteena Zarpedon know, that the explosion on her cruiser would attract the attention of Wilhelm and his little band of murderous psychopaths.

Little did Wilhelm know, that their combat to the death with Tungsteena in their battlesuits would be recorded and ECHOcasted to all relevant and irrelevant parties across Pandoran orbit.

Little did professor Polendina know, that his daughters Penny and Gaige would be inspired by the cyborg warfare footage and will go AWOL to improve and upgrade their bodies on Pandora.

Little did they know, that the Grimm on the planet were much smarter than your average breed and had already set an ambush around the landing site.

Little did the Grimm Destroyer know, that the Eridians it thought eradicated yet lived on Pandora.

Little did the Eridian Warrior know, that his eternal life was coming to an end, courtesy of four excited kids barreling in a supply crate towards the surface.

 _Let me tell you of team RWBY._


	2. Emergence

"I may have just lied to you," Tannis stormed into Jack's office without knocking and tried (unsuccessfully) to wrangle a strange triangular object with glowing purple markings on it from Jack. "The Eridian writing on the artifact from Promethea is illegible, yes, but now that I have translated the new satellite imagery from Pandora, I have concluded that this object was purposefully broken into pieces to hinder its accidental use! If my hypotheses are correct - which they always are - this Key needs to be reassembled and activated to access a certain place of great importance, as the keys are usually wont to do. Also, on the way here my ECHO scroll expressed very disturbing revelations about the sentient tacos ruling our society. You might want to look into that."

* * *

"Listen, brothers and sisters, and listen well! This is Comrade Vladof, the voice of the revolution. Your oppressors have gathered! They have sharpened their swords and have assembled their forces! Now is the time to strike! Now is the time to topple their towers of money and lies! And as their fist is readying to punish the masses, Vladof has only one question to ask you: are you ready to fight back? There is only one way to stop your corporate dictators: bloody, bloody revolution. Are. You. Ready?!"

* * *

"How the hell did Torgue of all people learn of Pandora?"

"I dunno."

"Angel, you have a brain the size of a planet. Torgue has a brain the size of a peanut." Jack digistructed a snack of peanuts from a vending machine and ate one. "Don't give me 'I dunno'."

"From what I gathered, he is not the only one orbiting Pandora right now."

"I can take 'em all, angel. Roll it on me."

…

"How in the name of God did they _all_ learn of Pandora?"

"I dunno."

* * *

The space shuttle shuddered and metal screeched as it was shot on by three distinct fleets. The kinetic shield had been punctured and depleted just a few seconds after the shuttle's arrival; the shock Dust ordinance was replaced by acid almost immediately, showing a great amount of skill among the attackers. Salvador had only a moment to think of a solution before the tin can exploded and he grinned as an idea came to him. Rushing towards a fast-travel station in the cargo bay, he hammered a request for the nearest enemy fleet. A CL4P-TP steward bot helpfully unlocked its own location for travel.

The blue glow of digistruct technology reduced him to little less than matter, transferred all the data towards Crimson Lance battleship, and reconstructed Salvador and his gear in the middle of a hangar bay. A number of Lance soldiers and engineers pointed their guns at him, expecting surrender.

"Knock, knock, bitches!" He activated the storage deck unit on his belt and two guns with Vladof barrels digistructed into his hands. "TIME TO COMPENSATE!"

As the bullets started flying, ECHO software recognised the pattern and activated it's pre-programmed response. Barely noticeable at first, it slowly build up, until orchestral music reverberated across the whole bay. Salvador grinned maniacally and hummed along. His Aura flared dramatically as bullets broke through the kinetic shield and tore into the power of a soul defending his body.

"BIENVENIDOS A LA FIESTA, AMIGOS!" Salvador shouted, unconcerned, moving forward at a sedate pace and daring anyone to stop him.

Someone chucked a grenade at him, and he dived for cover behind a supply crate, returning two of his own back whence it came.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE, PENDEJO!"

A Lance engineer deployed a turret onto the ceiling above them, and Salvador pressed a switch on one of his rifles. It transformed into a spear he harpooned at the turret, wrecking the mechanism and bringing it down on top of his enemies. The Lance scattered, and it was merely a formality from that point forward to find and hose them with bullets one by one. No amount of shielding and Aura saved them from the wrath of a gunserker on a warpath.

"NO KILL LIKE OVERKILL!"

Finally, as the last Lancemen had his tower shield ripped off and shot into the face multiple times, the screams died and an avalanche of Dust munitions stopped. Salvador looked around for more enemies, found none, and was about to move on, but a sudden movement in the corner of his eye drew his attention.

A robot three feet high was jumping on its wheel and waving its tiny arms.

"Hello, traveler!" Claptrap shouted in an obnoxiously cheerful voice and rolled forward.

* * *

"Move with caution, James. Several of my students might be running around."

"You think Crimson Lance will shoot teenagers?"

"I probably wasn't clear enough. You may lose Crimson Lance to a man, because some of my students might be running around."

A red warning sign lit up on Ironwood's holodesk, indicating boarding action. The general reached out in alarm, quickly dispatching a commando unit to stem the breach.

Ozpin sipped his coffee.

"If you ever need a sympathetic ear, do not hesitate to call me."

* * *

The dropship shuddered under the assault of unimaginable beasts; composite capable of withstanding atmospheric re-entry was torn to shreds by mighty claws. The creatures of Grimm howled and snarled and growled as their instincts urged them on, towards two bright lights inside. The lights that confused most of the creatures, because thy felt no terror or panic expected from the only living beings stranded on the planet. The older Grimm hung back, knowing well that confidence was usually backed up by skill, and planned tactics and strategies, directing their brainless kin at the ship's weak spots. Make sure it cannot stand, make sure it cannot fly, make sure it can't fight back.

The solitary Goliath stood far away, seemingly unconcerned, but in truth guarding the only exit from the plateau. If the specks managed to escape the horde, they will undoubtedly have to go this way, and the Goliath was patient.

The hull was breached, and Beowulves poured in, chewing and ripping through the cords and soft insides. Electricity stung them and killed them, but they never faltered, almost crazed in their only purpose, so close to fulfillment. Finally, they broke into the inner halls, where a mechanical voice greeted them.

"Self-destruct sequence initiated. Ten. Nine..."

Beowulves paid it no mind. Their senses were pointed at the lights, now tucked in a metal coffin at the side of the ship. It will not save them.

"Escape pod sealed. Launching."

The Beowulves looked on as their targets sailed overhead and away.

"...Three. Two. One."

The Goliath observed the explosion and carefully remembered everything it learned about dropships today. The specks were unprotected now; it trumpeted an attack signal that echoed throughout the plateau.

An ambush turned into a chase, it mattered little; this will end the same way at the end of the day.

* * *

The air above the rocky ground shimmered, the space folding and blurring and twisting until a tear opened in the middle of a valley. A woman with glowing blue tattoos on her left side casually stepped through, expertly reorienting herself, as if instant travel between galaxies was routine for her; perhaps it was.

"Now to find what knowledge Eridians had about Sirens," the woman muttered to herself, peeking at the mountain range looming above her. The tattoos, briefly dormant, lit up again, and space was torn apart once more.

* * *

Roman Torchwick glanced at the expensive detector he stole from the Schnee corp pilot on his way to the dock. Dark matter fluctuations were commonplace across six galaxies, but only one behaved _just right._ He did a few rough calculations and informed the pilot about their next destination. A middle of nowhere on the edge of discovered space, it didn't have _anything_ even vaguely resembling civilisation. What a Siren could have forgotten there was anyone's guess. With a sigh, Roman settled into his seat. This 'vengeance' business turned out not as fun as he imagined, but he'd be damned if he didn't at least try.

* * *

The pilot had only a couple of seconds to input coordinates before he was repeatedly shot in the back and set on fire. Scarlett decloaked and shoved the body out of the pilot's seat, taking it for herself.

"Terribly sorry, do that a lot, you understand. 'Twas nice not knowing ya. Bye." She kicked the ex-pilot towards the garbage disposal unit, making sure that her pirate hat did not fall into it too. It was hard to replace and few of them matched her awesome eye-patch.

"Now where did that kitty cat went to, I wonder?" She tried (and failed) to decipher the coordinates. Frustrated, she abandoned her hard-won seat, instead hacking the (former) pilot's account for the money he got paid for this trip. It would be unfair to take the initiative and do the job herself, only to _not_ be compensated for her trouble.

* * *

"ZAAAAAARPEEEEEDOOOOOON!"

"What the hell do you want, Jack?" She answered over the open channel, irritated. The cruiser of the Lost Legion rang from constant bombardment by small Schnee craft in the background, and she was too busy organizing a response to pay respects for pleasantries.

"Nothing, really, but it's such a fun name to scream. Have you tried it yourself? Say it with me: 'ZARPEDON'."

"Go to hell, Jack."

"You must have been a total riot at the school. Have anyone screamed your name at school? I bet they did, Tungsteena. It's so relaxing. So... evocative. So… invigorative."

"Could you save me the trouble and go hang yourself?"

"So much hostility, Zarpederp. But seriously, your parents were such..." she terminated the connection. Her holodesk lit up with a new incoming call immediately. She declined it. It lit up again. With a growl, she took the call.

"Assholes. They were assholes, to give you such a name," finished Handsome Jack and hung up on her.

* * *

Forty seconds after entering the atmosphere, the capsule stabilised and started sloughing off its outer shell. Flexible weave spread over a vast distance, a spider net of huge proportions, catching the air itself and parachuting its massive cargo. Thirty seconds later, and the inner shell opened like a flower, braking the fall much harder. Then, with a jerk, the actual parachute opened and spread slowly over the weave net.

A supply crate with "fragile" written on it and then crossed out emerged from within the contraption. Four unintended passengers were able to admire the view through the blast-proof window as the crate was hurdling rapidly towards the ground.

"Getting bored, now." Declared one of the girls inside and kicked the reinforced door off its hinges. She hopped off right after.

"Not again, Yang." A quick activation of the Longbow technology, and a device was deployed in the forests far below. Ruby walked off the crate and the next step seamlessly teleported her on Pandoran soil.

"It's not like we're hurrying anywhere," complained Weiss, but carefully froze sheets of ice into steps she leisurely descended.

The crate fell onwards, empty.

* * *

 _And so, our three girls and their kitty cat made their first step on Pandora, not knowing the horrors that would befall them._


	3. Foundation

In a galaxy far, far away from Remnant, there was a planet of great beauty and fascinating secrets just waiting to be uncovered by curious minds. In a perfect world, after the planet was found, Remnant's best and brightest would gather their finest men and equipment and organise into a yet unseen conclave of learning and discovery, make their way onto this paradise of knowledge and advance humanity into the new era of prosperity and scientific development.

The world being what it was, the discovery of Pandora brought about the gathering of guns, ships, rockets, robots, cannons, lasers, bombs, fire, mercs, and guns.

"YOU MAY ASK, WHO WAS WEARING THE BOLO TIE? ME OR THE SHARK I SUPLEXED? ANSWER: YES."

It also brought Mister Torgue High-Five Flexington to Pandora.

"YOU'VE PROBABLY NOTICED THAT EVERYONE HERE IS TRYING TO EXPLODE YOU, TORGUE PERSONNEL INCLUDED. YOU'RE WELCOME."

Being the man of science and discovery that he was, Mr. Torgue had since enthusiastically facilitated the rapid release of energy and heat elevation all across Pandoran orbit, more commonly referred to as 'BLOWING SH*T UP.'

"SMILE, MOTHERF*CKERS! YOUR MUGS WILL LOOK AWESOME ON RADIO!"

He also hijacked local ECHO broadcasting, because other corporations were too busy shooting at everybody else to care about ECHOnet.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! GIVE IT UP FOR THE NEW CONTENDER! THE HYPERION CORPORATION HAVE ARRIVED! LET US SEE IF MR. TASSITER HAS AN EXPLOSIVE ENTRY!"

A few moments passed when nothing had happened.

"THEN LET ME HELP YOU WITH THAT, MR. TASSITER." Torgue hammered a few buttons on his console, and the space truck fired a gyrojet at the closest ship of the new fleet. It quickly sped up and smashed into the kinetic shield, blossoming into a nuclear fireball.

"WELCOME TO TORGUE LAND, MOTHERF*CKER. IF YOU AREN'T MADE OF GASOLINE, METAL, OR BACON, GET THE F*CK BACK OUT!"

* * *

The perfect citizen of Torgue land was quite busy at that moment and couldn't hear him. Invading your opponent's cruiser was serious business, after all.

Wilhelm ducked back under cover after his ECHO scroll pinged with an automated message. The meritocratic bank account had confirmed the latest killstreak and shuffled money accordingly; he now had enough to make his coveted purchase. A press of a button commenced the procedure.

Pain blossomed at the fingertips and crawled upwards, sending nerves into a frenzy that violently shook the whole hand. He grit his teeth as digistruct technology swapped previously fragile arm with a hydraulic cybernetic fist, agonisingly slowly replacing flesh with metal. Before, brittle bones condition meant he couldn't put his love of fights to good use and failed Hunter academy entrance exam a number of times; it led Wilhelm to a mediocre mercenary life until Handsome Jack set up this particular method of rewarding him for outstanding performance in the field. Now that the surgery have finished, however, he was that much closer to his coveted dream of becoming a robot, and was itching to test out the latest performance boost in the field.

Wilhelm jumped into the open, quickly sprinting across the open deck crisscrossed by a number of tracer rounds. Fortunately, the enemy was stupid enough to not focus on him while he run; the joke was on them, now.

"Welcome to robot punch city! Population - everyone's faces!"

The Lost Legion soldiers reacted quickly, transforming their guns into melee weaponry and circling around him. But the good news about a fist made of metal was that it didn't require much skill to whack people in the face with it. As the nearest soldier was bringing about his cumbersome weapon (seriously, who in their right mind uses a scythe?), Wilhelm threw the first punch, hydraulics extending it way beyond normal reach. It went through the shield and Aura both, launching his opponent to sail back through the air and into the wall. He did not get back up. The rest of the Lost Legion took a step back.

"This is better than therapy!" Wilhelm grinned and started on his new deposit.

* * *

"Aaaaaaand, OPEN!"

Roland sent a silent alarm to his squad, though he need not have bothered; that loud and cheery voice could have raised the dead and very clearly stated that the rogue Claptrap unit had disabled another door lock in the way of their mysterious attackers. He palmed a cylinder two inches wide that will deploy his turret once thrown, and held up a hand to hold his men from springing the ambush too quickly, waiting in silence for footsteps.

"Sarge, reinforcements coming up on your six, how copy?" A soldier he left back at the entrance reported over the comms.

Roland cursed his luck and motioned one of the men to take his position, before withdrawing further into the stacks of whatever equipment Crimson Lance decided was important enough to carry halfway across the galaxy.

"Not the time, Private. Whoever that is, tell them to hold position until shots are fired. Out," he whispered.

There was an explosion and a torrent of rapid fire. One of the Aura gauges from his squad went into the red and then black in a matter of seconds.

"All troops, engage," Roland shouted over a wide-band and sprinted back towards the battlefield, chucking the turret cylinder over the crates and (hopefully) cutting off the enemy from retreating. He glanced at the ECHO scroll map display, checking if promised new troops weren't walking right into the grinder he set up. They didn't, but the name-tags caught his eye. Or, rather, one name in particular.

He hesitated only for a moment before setting up a waypoint for the man, right in the middle of the killzone. There was no rest for the wicked, and some were deserving of eternal torment more than others. Let the fucker get one last assist by playing bait.

Roland quickly shuffled positions for the Crimson Lance under his command, closing the encirclement and further reinforcing all fronts with newcomers. The attack will be repelled _here_ , if he had any say in it. A whole army will break its teeth trying to push through his defence.

Unfortunately, it was not an army that was attacking.

* * *

The jets cut off almost as soon as they fired, and then engaged again; the fuel that was designed to move the pod in space was too powerful for a short hop away from danger, and she calculated the precise timings and angles to prevent a hard landing. She took all systems under her direct command from the moment they entered; it would be embarrassing to let the rough AI onboard handle it when her own ability was that much greater and available for collaboration. All vital systems were showing adequate readings, and she turned her focus to the only thing in the pod that wasn't under her control.

"Gaige, are you uninjured?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. And you?"

She run a quick diagnostics on her main body, internal workings reporting once again acceptable results. She waited a beat before replying, marveling at how her heart _could_ beat.

"I'm combat ready!"

"Pft, combat. We're running away!" Gaige smashed her cybernetic arm into the panel to her left in anger. Fortunately, the escape pod they were flying in had a redundant and heavily reinforced framework to preserve life onboard, so Penny simply re-routed all the damaged circuits.

"As we should, Gaige. Father said..."

"Father is not here! That's the whole reason we're doing this. Smash the system!" Gaige swung her hand again, but the broken panel was sparkling with constant electric discharge and she thought better of it. The ergonomic seat lost it's handrest, instead. "And besides, there's not much time left anyway. The fuel should run out any moment."

"Eight point three seconds until touchdown," Penny dutifully reported, gently guiding the pod to skip twice against local river surface and then to slide onto the sandy beach, decelerating all the while. A few warnings popped up, mostly superficial damage, but nothing unaccounted for beforehand. A satisfactory performance overall, even for someone with an excessive amount of processing power for the task.

The instructions stated that she was now to broadcast a distress signal and shift power to defensive systems. And yet, deep in her soul (a real soul!), she knew otherwise. Well, not really _knew_ , but that could be rectified presently.

"What should be our next priority?"

"Now we become the epitome of asskickery and awesomeness! By finding Grimm and beating the crap out of 'em, booyah! I'm going to test the tech I cooked up for just this occasion - and I've already got a bunch of ideas on the way down, too - because seriously, who in their right mind would test experimental laser weaponry on dummies like dad wanted me to, that's just silly, right? So I'm, like, screw general Ironwood, anarchy forever! Let him drag his feet in orbit, we're gonna drop right away. And we did! Well, you did. I'm a genius, but even I can't figure out atmospheric re-entry window on the fly. Good thing you showed up when you did." Gaige suspiciously glanced at her, but Penny kept silent about hacked security cameras in the R&D department of the Crimson Lance. "Anyway, right _now_ , now, we're looking for baddies, and... oh crap, my radar's offline." The broken panel sparkled at her again. Gaige unfurled and digistructed a wide array of tools from her cybernetic limb and enthusiastically endeavored to rebuild it.

Penny bypassed the damaged interface and accessed radar readings directly. It seemed Gaige's wish came true, as red dots were swarming on the other side of the river.

It was time for her to get to work, too.

* * *

Axton peeked around the corner for the moment and hid back in case anyone shot at him. He need not have bothered, as the corridor was empty of hostiles. Moving up quickly, he crossed over to the door controls and hammered in an override code into the panel. The door disengaged its locks and split apart. He squatted and very carefully glanced into the next room.

The Schnee boarders have stopped their advance and set up here, his intel claimed, and colonel Zarpedon dispatched a commando to scout the area and disrupt whatever plans the enemy had. Now that he got a visual, their intent become clear - a constructor bot have smashed its way in and was busy assembling some sort of giant walker mech. The Schnee mercs were scattered around, mostly alert, but he could see a few patrols he could take out undetected, too.

Axton quickly run through his options - discarding for obvious reasons the standard routine of reporting back to his superiors and waiting for reinforcements - and arrived at a scientifically sound conclusion that he needed more explosives to deal with the situation. Which, once again, meant he'd have to back off and come around another time after resupplying. Or maybe, just maybe, he could loot something from the corpses of his enemies.

Nodding at his own brilliance, Axton crept forward in between crates and boxes stacked haphazardly all over the place. Whoever was responsible for the cargo arrangement must have been disorganised as all hell, but for now it played into his hands.

Something tumbled under his feet and Axton barely managed to roll out of the way as the grenade exploded. One of the attackers took advantage of the rough topography and climbed halfway to the ceiling, setting up a reinforced position from above. The kinetic shield broke under a heavy sniper round, and the commando scrambled out of the line of fire, hiding himself in a corner. There were shouts and orders a few rows over, and any other men would think himself boxed in and nearly finished, but Axton had a card up his sleeve. Literally.

A flick and a gesture, and a box with his Sabre turret teleported onto the wall above him, gluing itself to the surface and deploying a dome shield, multiple barrels and a rocket pod. There was a muffled 'oh, crap' from the sniper, before a missile salvo hammered that position. The miniguns rotated downwards, spraying bullets all the while, and Axton used the confusion to flank his enemies.

"Bingo!" He murmured when one of the unlucky bastards pivoted a rocket launcher towards the turret. Axton transformed his gun into a tomahawk and smacked the guy in the back. It took another box-turned-autogun, this time on the ceiling, to draw fire, and there was an opening in enemy ranks. He tried to savor the pleasant moment of breaking expensive shit into bits and getting paid for it, leisurely looting the body and crossing the room towards the bot like a badass, while the rest of the area descended into chaos and mayhem.

Finally, the commando climbed onto the suitable crate to get line of sight of the constructor and instead was greeted by the humongous mech it was digistructing, very much completed and active. It turned slightly to track him and its hand cannons started glowing ominously.

"Well, shit," Axton said to no one in particular and dived for cover, mourning his payday.

* * *

Step, step, dodge, swing.

The Alpha Beowulf towered impossibly high over her, and had enough strength to uproot trees without slowing down.

Jab, swing, jump, shoot.

Its swipes left whole swathes of forest leveled, making footing treacherous and combat difficult.

Twist, turn, brace, dash.

Intelligence shone through its eyes as it boxed her in, carefully dismantling every bit of cover around her.

Slash, shoot, rush, zip.

It ignored any wounds it had suffered and didn't seem to slow down even a little.

Step, whirl, sweep, shoot.

It had bone plating strong enough to weather multiple disintegrator shots from her scythe point blank.

Halt, jump, swing, run.

For Ruby Rose, it was Tuesday.

Flash, bounce, pivot, shoot.

As its arm buried itself into ground and wood chunks, she sprinted it up to the head and buried a blade five feet long into the Beowulfs eye.

Flash, swing, flash, shoot.

Another teleport and she was under its supporting paw, severing hamstring in between its armor.

Jab, rip, twirl, hack.

Reality blurred and crumbled into blue-tinged phantasmagory, reassembling her on the other side of the beast.

Hew, dodge, dash, lunge.

Another attempt at an eye, but the Beowulf shifted and blocked her with its lame paw.

Flash, slash, thrust, leap.

A blade poked into the tendon under its upper arm was more successful.

Jump, twirl, step, shoot.

Ruby helpfully planted her scythe under its chin when it collapsed.

Flash, jab, hack, slash.

It tried to howl, but its mangled throat garbled sound.

Slash, slash, jab, rip.

A flurry of strikes opened up its scull. A bullet inside finished it off.

"Phew. That was awesome." She said to the rapidly decaying corpse.

A meteor smashed into the ground not far away, blasting the area in fire and setting the forest aflame.

Ruby zipped on top of the dead beast and made a show of casual relaxation with Crescent Rose strewn over her shoulders.

"You're late to the party again, Yang," she teased.

"Meh, you've cheated. Again." Yang walked over and poked the Beowulf. "This guy was a big one."

"Yeah, I think it was so old it might have seen Eridians in the flesh. That's so cool!"

Yang reached into its muzzle, broke off a tooth bigger than she was and deconstructed it into her belt storage. "For posterity," she explained.

"Do you think dad ever killed a bigger one?"

"Probably. He travelled a lot before settling in."

"I bet he never killed one before he finished school, though." The skull was too wispy to support her now, so Ruby jumped down next to her sister.

"Well, duh. You have a penchant of sticking the team into missions like this one."

"It was Weiss this time! And I don't see anything wrong with searching for alien treasure, Yang."

"Exactly my point. Do you have any idea what would happen when the news reach the public?"

"Rivals! It's gonna be like a race! Sweet!" Ruby studied Crescent Rose in case Grimm bits haven't evaporated from it yet, and then twirled it around and collapsed it on her back.

"Yes. Sweet. Lets go with that," signed Yang. She made a point of looking around. "What's taking them so long?"

"Weiss always preferred to travel in style," Blake said from behind them and pointed at the sky. Ruby squinted in that direction, and finally spotted a cloud moving sedately through air. On top of the cloud was an ornate ice throne, whereupon Weiss leisurely sat.

"Is this a joke?" Yang opened her ECHO scroll and hit speed dial. "You could hurry up any minute, you know," she said as soon as the connection was established.

"It's windy up here if I go too fast. I don't want to catch a cold."

"You, cold? Pft, let's see if I can warm you up," Yang grinned and deployed Ember Celica. A flare round crossed the sky and punched into the cloud from below. The throne sunk and fell through it.

"I should have known there will be no respect from you plebs." The connection terminated and a sheet of ice spread from the falling throne to the ground at an angle. The construct slid it down like a sled, coming to rest next to the party. "So, what's the emergency?"

"We're missing out so much fun!" Ruby declared. "Ancient ruins, and aliens, and alien ruins! Don't say you're not excited!"

"They were here for thousands of years, i don't think they will go anywhere in the next few minutes."

"Spoilsport."

"Dolt."

"Jerk."

"Dunce."

"Where did Blake go?" Yang wondered, trying to spot a familiar glimmer in the air. Her scroll pinged with a waypoint, and she beaconed others behind her. A short walk later, and a vista opened up from the top of the steep cliff. Below, a picturesque valley spread both ways, a sharp contrast to the burned out forest behind them. Brush and trees stretched far and wide, covering the whole canyon in rich viridescent colors, which was why a grey area with purple markings on top of it stood out.

"Team RWBY, it's time to make history… stuff… happen. Are you with me?" Ruby cheered.

"I suppose it could be fun."

"Sure."

"Lead on, sis."

"Then let's go!"

* * *

 _And so they made their way down, self assured in their own might and invincibility. Spoilers: they weren't._


	4. Escalation

It was not a good Tuesday to be Roman Torchwick.

Another bullet ricocheted above his head, and Roman doubled down and run like hell. The Lost Legion gave chase, and he shot back a flare from his cudgel to warn them off. He had nothing they would want anyway; that _God damned woman_ having stolen his personal effects during the flight. Professional courtesy demanded he did the same to her, but, the problem was, that God-forsaken woman _turned invisible_. After crashing their rowboat into the cruiser of an intergalactic corporation, _in open space_. How probable was that? And now, those fine gentleman decided that he was at fault, because that _thrice damned woman_ conveniently disappeared and left him to clean up her mess.

The corridor made a turn, and he run into an observation room without any other exits.

"Ooookay. Time for plan 'B'," he drawled, pulling out a pin from a modified grenade. It blasted thick smoke from both ends, and Roman threw it back into the corridor. The diversion won him precious seconds and made a draft, enough to find a ventilation shaft and blast away the grate.

"Didn't see that coming, did you?"

As he crawled his way into more friendly territory, a thought just couldn't leave him be; if only he had double-checked the pilot, none of this would have happened. Once again, he learned to do everything by his own two hands and not trust hired "help" to actually aid him like the name suggested. He should find someone unable of betrayal, like a robot or something. The less was said about his previous experiences with living people (and Faunus mutts), the better.

Suddenly, there was a distant explosion, but it sounded from ahead of him, not behind. His curiosity peaking, Roman sped up; there was only one other force of chaos and destruction he knew of on this ship and he would have liked to have _a word_ with that deplorable woman before the locals became too excited and killed her with prejudice like she deserved. Finally, he spotted another ventilation opening just ahead of him. Cautiously approaching it, he peeked down at the devastation beneath.

The area looked like a Torgue arena after the tournament; nothing was left undamaged in some way, shape, or form. It seemed most of the fighting had raged right in the middle, but had since lulled and shifted to one side of the place. A rampaging thirty feet tall mech, its paint singed badly, was trying to force it's way into a ten feet door with predictable results, while a group of people with Schnee insignia looked on with amusement from the sidelines. A constructor bot had been abandoned to the other side, still executing its last order and digistructing another mech.

Roman felt a plan form; a hijack worth his name coming together. It was time to make himself (in)famous again. Course set, he quietly removed the grate and jumped down.

* * *

A bunch of dudes run in some random direction, and Scarlett made sure her invisibility suite haven't glitched out at an inappropriate moment. It would be totally embarrassing to have to kill them all because she didn't pay attention to her gear. Already, she felt deep and vast shame over the knife that broke in that Torchwick guy's back. Too much wear and tear. It's not like she expected the thief to have his Aura active when sleeping, anyway. He'd have to die too, of course, but probably later, because she had yet to replace the knife. A kitchen would be a good start for that, if she had the slightest idea where it was. Should she ask locals for directions? Nope, she saw some already and she doubted any were smart enough to actually listen to a pretty girl without resorting to some unfriendly advances or manslaughter first. Or maybe both. Both would be great, actually. Only, she deliberated too long and no locals were in sight. Pity.

Something blew up again, making the whole ship shudder. If those aboard were having fun, she definitely should be joining them, Scarlett decided. Direction picked, she drew Greed from her holster and made her way into the battle.

Of course, the term "battle" was applied very loosely, given that she was invisible. Also, given that three huge robots towering above everything else on the loading platform were more or less invincible to her pistol shots. The good news was, they were too busy aiming at each other in a truxican standoff. The bad news was, the whole area was swarming with people shooting at each other and it was a matter of time before a stray bullet uncloaked her. But the best news was, she found someone who won't try to kill her on sight, because the guy wasn't waving a gun around. Scarlett ducked behind a row of consoles and crept towards the man.

"You are outnumbered and outmatched. Stand down, and I'll grant you a quick death." Her ECHO scroll identified the voice on the loudspeaker as 'Colonel T. Zarpedon'. One of the battlesuits extended an energy sword from the back of its fist and brandished it threateningly.

"Not to rain on your parade, darling, but I'm not the greatest fan of dying. Quickly, or otherwise." Scarlett did a double-take; that couldn't have been any other than the thief she left behind. How he managed to get ahead of her and find a robot with such sexy missile rack, she had no idea.

Both mechs turned towards the third contender. A few seconds passed.

"Something on my face?" A gruff voice growled.

Apparently, that was enough of a comeback, because the mechs shifted back into an uneasy deadlock.

Scarlett finally reached her target - a military dude who seemed busy planting a bomb. Knowing how important it was for boys to play with their toys, she patiently waited until he finished.

"Terribly sorry, but I'm rather lost and would like some directions. Do you know where the kitchen is?" Best be polite, and that question should be easy enough to answer. Well, for most people; this man was looking very confused, and Scarlett couldn't hide her astonishment. How one lived to his age without knowing where the food was?

Suddenly, he whipped out a hand in her general direction and a box teleported right under her feet.

"Chew 'em up, honey," he grinned widely. Scarlett mentally apologised for everything she said about the guy. Sharing lunch with her was one of the most touching things people did for her in her whole life. She made to unpack the box, but it opened on its own. Only, instead of food, it deployed a number of barrels and aimed a missile pod at her.

It seemed she just gained her new arch-nemesis. He'll learn in time that no one betrays her before she does it first. But later. For now, it was time to make herself scarce.

* * *

Axton watched intently as the laser pointer from his turret pivoted back and forth, tracking that peculiar invisible woman. She tried to zig and zag, but his little darling was more than a match for such tactics. He called up his storage deck unit and digistructed a Torgue rifle - gyrojets made up for low accuracy with a lot of ground covered in explosions - and added his own fire to the auto-guns spread. Suddenly, she leaped sideways and hid behind a nearby console.

A pistol shot echoed a moment later, and a man in white Schnee garb run out from the spot where the woman just disappeared, burning alive and screaming for mercy. The Sabre turret obliged, bringing him down with a bullet. A comparative silence descended as both sides decided what to do next.

"You can keep your lunch, I'm not that hungry anyway," his opponent declared and tried to run again, only to be boxed in by a missile salvo. "Seriously, I would offer you my own food if I had any on me, just forget I asked anything?" Another burst hit the back of the console, shredding it into metal ribbons. "I'm really sorry I offended your diet issues, I promise I'll never do that again?" The energy in his sweetheart ran out, and it deconstructed back into his storage subspace.

Now lacking backup, Axton silently crept forward, his senses cast forward and on high alert for an air distortion. He cautiously rounded the corner and found the nook before the console empty. Firing an explosive round inside just in case, he looked around, trying to spot her before she did something stupid again. Alas, it was not to be, as the bomb he had been arming pinged with a warning - and then exploded prematurely, triggering a chain reaction he'd painstakingly set up before the interruption. Axton cursed under his breath and run like hell towards the nearest exit, but it was too late. The support columns that held a loading platform inside the cruiser were all destroyed, and he could literally feel the floor dropping from under his own feet. Watching a forcefield spring above the platform to keep the air from escaping into space, he could only regret God ever invented Tuesdays.

* * *

Jack adjusted target priorities for the automated Dust cannon in the middle of his turbo-mansion - it seemed that Tassiter had finally abandoned his idiotic tactics of massive drops onto Pandora. Handsome Jack gleefully shot those barges down mid-flight like in a shooting range, and the Hyperion corporation at last figured out they needed to establish orbital dominance first to make any progress. They joined the rest of the fleets around the planet in a free-for-all deathmatch soon after.

"No one is touching that planet but me," Jack whispered, running the scan for any object on the approach vector towards the surface. Barring that strange dropship from the Crimson Lance that missiles refused to track for some weird reason, he managed to hold off his competitors from landing on Pandora. If all went well, Weiss and her sidekicks will get the fast-travel to work planetside soonish and the imbeciles idling in his overcrowded turbo-mansion will be able to do something useful, at last.

An alarm popped up on his holodesk, drawing his undivided attention. It seemed that the Lost Legion cruiser had tossed an object out of it's cargo bay and Pandoran gravity pull picked it up. He magnified the output from external cameras and watched in shock as two Paladin mechs and a Lost Legion battlesuit ponderously duked it out on a platform slowly rotating in space.

"What the hell? I can't believe I missed that fight." A quick estimation revealed that even if he launched in his personal shuttle right now, he wouldn't be able to catch up to the platform until it hit atmosphere. Well, at least he already had an edge in that battle - an in-depth check revealed Wilhelm manning one of the giant robots. An IFF request to another mech was answered by the middle finger broadcasted at all available frequencies. The third suit, however, was the icing on the cake - it identified itself as dear old Tungsteena, leaving Dahl fleet abandoned and disorganized. Jack snorted at the name and set his mansion cannon to target the Dahl flagship. Whatever idiocy pushed Zarpedon to abandon her post, he would make sure to capitalize on it a hundredfold.

* * *

An Ursa rushed the stationary plasma caster and covered it with its dying body so the mechanism was unable to pitch its considerable firepower to the fight. Gaige cursed under her breath and shifted to the other side of the pod, where another gun was still operational. From her new position, she could easily see the spot where Penny was demolishing rows upon rows of Grimm in wide sweeps of flying steel, facing a veritable tide of black hides and white bone and _winning_. Adding magnetic thrusters to the swords have weakened their frames, but greatly enhanced penetrating power, and in situations like this one the upgrade seemed to pay off. Penny channeled her Aura into the swords to reinforce their fragile structure, and the glow drew most of the attacking force towards her like moth to flame. They climbed the bodies of their fallen kin without heed, the dead not evaporating fast enough to make a clear path to their target. The Grimm never cared nor stopped, an unyielding rush of death and destruction.

Not that they completely forgot about Gaige, either. A murder of Nevermores two feet big each have swarmed out of the trees and went straight for her. She accessed an emergency compartment in the escape pod and digistructed a pistol, firing in the general direction of the swarm. The muzzle flash blinded her for a moment, and she blinked tears out of her eyes, trying to get a clear view on her sharpshooting. For some weird reason, the flock looked completely unaffected.

The pistol run empty, and her mechanical limb helpfully digistructed a replacement clip. Gaige fumbled with a thumb release for a while, but successfully loaded a new mag, just in time to see the flying Grimm being moved down by the pod autocannon in a second.

"Meh, I could have taken them." She looked around for new targets to practice on. A King Taijitu was shifting around the circle of death that was Penny, cautiously staying outside her range and ever so slowly edging towards the pod and its remaining occupant. Gaige fired a few shots to warn it off, but the beast didn't seem to notice. Frustrated, she dismissed the inadequate pistol and reached out for one of her experimental schematics, triggering the tools in her arm to whirl to life and construct a weapon the world had never seen yet. As a big, bulky tube ended with a Burn Dust crystal on one end and a handhold from the other, it was crude, it was ugly, the coolant fins sticking from the top and to the sides pretty much denied aiming, and it sapped power like nothing else. It also had enough firepower to level a house, and that was all that mattered.

Gaige pointed her creation at her chosen enemy and pressed the trigger. The crystal glowed white-hot and the whole contraption shuddered, but held together as a thin ray of light shot out, crossing the field in a moment and burrowing into the ground next to the two-headed snake.

"Eh, accuracy's overrated anyway." The Taijitu reared it's heads in her direction and coiled itself in a blur of black and white. "Test one, partial success, time for test two." She shifted a lever on her weapon all the way down, not bothering to stop at medium settings, and pressed the trigger again.

It trembled and quivered and whizzed, but reached peak capacity without exploding and shot a continuous beam of fiery death towards the Grimm, missing it by a hair and continuing on towards the forest, setting it ablaze and cutting through trees like knife through butter. Gaige shifted her aim sideways to shear the Taijitu in half, but it twisted and turned and shifted out of the way, digging itself under the ground in a matter of seconds.

"That's right, fear the cute little girl!" The coolant fins burst a stream of evaporating nitrogen. "You think you can take me? You think?" She was met with distant howls and snarls as the continuous Grimm horde pouring from the forest suddenly stopped; probably because it was on fire. "Gaige, one, uglies, zero!" No one decided to challenge her and her laser as she swiveled it to cut down even more of the forest, baptising her new invention in glorious infernal blaze. "That was totally intentional!" She decided.

Seeing all her enemies annihilasered, she finally released the trigger. The weapon groaned a sigh of relief and cooled down with another burst of steam.

"See that, Penny? I am the greatest engineer alive!" She shouted to the other girl.

"Congratulations on your initial trials, Gaige!" Penny replied, making her way over the half-decayed bodies of nightmarish beasts.

"Test two, a resounding success." She coughed as the wind shifted and covered the pod in thick smoke. Her spacesuit deployed a forcefield mask to keep the air breathable. "A few kinks to work out later, but for now, that definitely goes into the 'plus' column. And those idiots back in the Lance R&D claimed it'll blow up. Phah! Shows what they know. Freeloaders, all of them."

"I am sure after a review of combat data gathered here they will shift their opinions appropriately. Though I am afraid it will take a while for us to make it back home. The pod is inoperable at the moment." Penny effortlessly lifted off the remains of an Ursa corpse from the turret and reached through the gouges it left on the outside to reconnect the ammo feed. Gaige pulled up a status update to see if she could help with repairs, but her attention quickly drowned in the unending list of failures and warnings.

"You know what? The testing is not yet complete. We're not going back a bit longer." Ideas formed in her head, and she grinned at her own genius. "How do you feel about an upgrade, yourself?"

* * *

"Are we there yet?"

"No Weiss, we're not there yet. Yes, Weiss, walking is something people do when they need to get somewhere. No, Weiss, not every forest is equipped with an escalator. I'm sure you can figure it out without a manual for dummies."

"To be fair, it was a very good manual. And you were a very bad match to my Dust."

"If you kept it somewhere else than my face," Ruby looked back at her and pointed for effect, "that might have helped."

"What would have helped more, was you watching where you are going."

"It's not like I'm running into things." Ruby turned forward again, only to nearly run into a tree. "It's not like I'm tripping over every root and shrub," she amended.

"You try and do that in heels. I seriously dare you. But that's for later. Now, I actually want you to watch where you're going." Weiss pointed at the bright bush barring their path.

"What, you're allergic for pollen or something?"

"No. But I own a planet somewhere in the Terminus. No big deal. Visited there on a break, Hunting, and the guide said that the more eye-catching the flora, the more dangerous it is."

"Like, poisonous kind of dangerous?"

"Do I look like a botanist to you?"

"You're the one preaching about bushes." Ruby rolled her eyes and disappeared in a swirl of rose petals.

"Hey, guys?" Yang's voice rung from her scroll. "I think Blake found the beacon. We'd better hurry up and catch up with her."

With barely a thought and a flick of her sword, an icy road stretched before Weiss, weaving between trees and toppling the shrub. Another push of her will, and a glyph launched her skating forward.

"Something isn't right. Stay on your guard." Blake added.

The trees suddenly gave way to an open space with barely any life on it; the area looked like it survived an apocalyptic war. It was bounded by the river to one side and a cliff to another, but what drew her attention was a device driven into the ground across the field. If anything, it reminded her of a bird digging its claws underground and stretching its wings back, set in white and blue colors of the Schnee Dust company. A holographic sphere representing Pandora slowly spun atop of it.

"It doesn't look damaged. Wonder why it won't work?" Ruby materialised right next to her.

"Jack said the signal was blocked." Weiss checked her scroll, and found only static. She sent a snowflake into the sky to mark their position. "The problem is, there shouldn't be anyone but us here."

"Isn't there some ancient Grimm capable of… well, this?"

"Professor Port did mention one or two. He also advised to retreat if we ever come across one unprepared."

"Well, at least it won't surprise us. That should count as prepared." Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose in a whirl of blades and stepped forward.

"Wait." Blake's voice stopped her. "Anyone else feel it?"

"Feel what?"

"Tremors."

"An underground attack?" Ruby glanced back at Blake, and received a nod in return. "Weiss, we need a platform; Blake, give me a direction."

"I'm not sure. It stopped when you did."

Ruby deliberately made another step.

The ground suddenly shook as something massive moved underneath it. Weiss made a sheet of ice ten feet off the ground, and the girls jumped atop of it.

"I think it goes that way." Blake pointed at the lone Fast-travel. Suddenly, there was an inhuman screech, and a snake head thirty feet tall rose from the ground, looked around, and chomped down on the device. Not finding anything else of value, it dived back underground.

"Did... that Taijitu just ate the beacon?"

"I don't think that was a Taijitu, Ruby..."

An explosion echoed from the forest behind them, and Yang came out of it flying with an enormous grin on her face. She landed not far away from the platform and run the rest of the way by foot.

"Did I miss anything?"

"Yes, you did." The ground shook again, more violently than before, and the inhuman screech increased tenfold and reverberated across the valley, terrifying and unending. Weiss rose the platform as high as she could as soon as Yang joined them. "Because, I think, we've just run into a Typhon."

* * *

 _"The end."_

 _"Wait, what?"_

 _"You wanted me to tell you a story, you never asked for a happy ending. Scamper off, brat."_

 _"But! But, there's so much you haven't told me about yet. The Eridians, and ancient alien artifacts, and..."_

 _"I didn't? Oh, well, that might not have actually been the end..."_


	5. Crescendo

Under the glare of the foreign sun, the air trembled and the ground shuddered; the uneven cliff to the side crashed down in an avalanche of rocks and soil. A gigantic crack appeared in the middle of the field and then a dozen more spread in all directions. The infernal screech that filled the air gave a new, triumphant pitch, and finally, a massive Grimm burst to the surface. It took the form of a snake that was a knot of snakes that were made of more snakes, merging and splitting and twisting without rhyme or reason, slithering over themselves in a nauseating shift of vivid colours and inky, depthless void. The dance of its movements was mesmerising and captivating; all the more dangerous with the occasional mouth filled to the brim with teeth, and rough, edgy bone plating surfacing from the insides and getting devoured back into itself.

"You sure it's a Typhon? I expected it to be a bit… bigger." Yang looked down at the monster from above.

The ground shook violently again and another snake out of nightmares pierced the sky. And then another. And another.

"Ah. That's more like it." She punched her fists together eagerly.

The beast twisted its heads towards the pillar of ice and let out a reverberating roar out of its many throats. The forest behind them filled with howls and shrieks as other, smaller Grimm answered the call. The Hunt was on.

"Any ideas?" Blake dubiously glanced at Gambol Shroud and then back up at the beast before them.

"We need more gun." Ruby transformed Crescent Rose into rifle mode and fired a high-impact round into the head nearest to her. It didn't seem to notice.

"What it needs is a really good punch to the face." Yang deployed her own gauntlets and set herself on fire.

"Does it have a face? Lets go find its face," Ruby unfurled the scythe back to full length and blurred towards the beast. One of the heads reared back and lunged at her, while the rest dived at the dais and its remaining occupants. Yang and Weiss shared a glance and jumped high into the air, boosted by white glyphs under their feet. The ice crumbled under titanic impact, sending shards hurdling everywhere. After a moment, though, they changed directions and swarmed the Grimm like flies, instead.

Weiss pivoted with a pirouette from one glyph to another and brandished her rapier in a wide gesture. The storm of fragments gathered in a stream and made another pass, impaling and cutting and shredding the Grimm in a torrent of razor sharp splinters. The pitch-black sludge that covered the beast washed over the damaged areas - and consumed most of the ice without a trace.

One of the heads unraveled into hundreds and reached out to Weiss from all directions, cutting her off from any thoughts of escape. That was, until they started to fall off one by one, stuck from seemingly nowhere.

"They're surprisingly easy to cut," Blake shared from the underside of the glyph they both stood on. Gambol Shroud whooshed again, its energy blade glowing softly, and a whole swathe of Grimm tissue was sheared apart, creating an opening. The girls jumped ahead, eager to break out of the surround, except that their opponent seemingly counted on it. One of the bigger heads blindsided them from underground and opened wide its maw to swallow them both.

A meteor fell from the sky, unbearably hot and blindingly white. It smashed into the Grimm and _through_ the Grimm, exploding like a supernova on impact and burning away its flesh in a radiant inferno. The ground upheaved from impact, sending waves of dirt and stone in all directions.

"Miss me, sugar?" Yang sedately followed after the retreating tentacles and severed stumps out of the crater, a blaze springing up after each step.

The Typhon responded with another roar, enraged. One of the heads reared back and fire blossomed in it's jaws. Another spit a glob of darkness the size of a car right at the girl.

A snowflake blossomed in its way, growing in elegant fractals and spreading, building upon itself until it provided a shield to block the attack fully. Whatever the substance was, it slid off without a mark left behind; when it hit the ground, however, it burned right through it, obliterating hard rock without a trace and disappeared into a tunnel of darkness.

"Grimm boogers? On our first date? I am not amused." Yang sped up until she was running full tilt straight at her enemy, easily clearing the gap in one wide stride. A tentacle whipped from the side, but the girl ripped it apart without much effort and pushed on.

The heads shifted again, melding and splitting again and again, until the head with the huge ball of fire in its jaws came to the fore and harpooned it at Yang. She slowed down, gathering the flames strewn behind her into a tight spear with a wave of a hand and launched it towards the orb with a gesture. Two projectiles met with an eye-searing flash and fire was born. The air itself combusted, the firestorm forming and expanding to fill the whole clearing - and then it collapsed, spent, just as quickly. A gust of wind carried the smoke away moments later, and a picture of desolation opened before their eyes. What little tufts of grass survived before, were burning cinders, now; the rock itself gained partially melted sheen. Only the alien ruins to the north remained untouched and unbothered among the devastation.

"That's all you've got? Pathetic," Yang boasted, her hair glowing brightly. Another tentacle tried to skewer her from her right, this one covered in white spiked Grimm armor, but she stopped it cold with her own fist. "You're hitting like a..." A blur of white bone jotted out of the ground and sent her tumbling through the air, all across the field and into the river. The water accepted her gently, flexing to the bottom like a spring and carefully delivering her back to the surface.

And then it left her at the bank, and kept going up, and to the side, and _up_ , congealing into a giant figure made of water, with a huge sword and tower shield of ice clutched in its hands. The harsh sun of Pandora filled the construct with bright glow and glint as it advanced in a lumbering stride upon the Typhon, relentless in its pursuit. All around her, she could see the process repeated, an army of knights rising from the river to march at the beast, until nothing but weeds were left to dry in the crevice.

* * *

James Ironwood rarely felt such worry and concern as he did right now. Despite his fleet's early arrival and general competence of the Crimson Lance, the fight was way too chaotic and shifted back and forth too much to plan and strategize efficiently. His ECHO-eye projected a holographic image of Pandora before him in the otherwise dark and empty room, marking the general location of the fleets and flagships currently orbiting the planet.

James Ironwood rarely felt such jubilation and adrenaline coursing through his veins. The battle demanded his utmost, and he matched it at every turn. One mistake was enough to get half his fleet outflanked or even cut off - such were the hardships of three-dimensional combat - but it merely added to the excitement he had long forgotten about. A dozen skirmishes he had to pay attention to simultaneously, and barely any time to make decisions. His hand moved decisively, and so did a few of his ships across the map, waypoints calculated by the military AI onboard for each of them according to his orders.

"The yoke of our oppressors shall never bind our wills!"

James Ironwood rarely felt such annoyance and irritation. A twitch of an eye and the decrypted message was junked as most others were before. The effort dedicated to intercepting enemy orders had a side effect of catching enemy propaganda as well. It also could not be avoided in case actual orders were hidden in it. The army could not operate without direction, after all, and he was best positioned to find and exploit any changes in enemy movements just as they were issued.

"Bridge, units twelve through fifteen request permission to engage enemy forces in close quarters, over."

Barely a thought, and a secure uplink was established.

"Relay orders: engage and retreat almost immediately. Units ten and eleven move up to cover them and deploy canopy shields. Units sixteen through eightteen follow behind and open up with the broadside on any pursuers. Split up and pace them as needed then. Do not pursue if they retreat. Bridge, out."

His fingers twitched again to support his word with markers and pointers. Reports flooded the field of vision dedicated to the task - mostly confirmation on orders being received and understood - and he shifted attention to another front. Bait and switch was a trick known across six galaxies, but it got old long before he did because it worked. Hopefully, Vladof forces would be just as green as they showed themselves to be so far and lose their advance forces here.

The Hyperion front hardly looked as successful. Shifting the ships that had been hit in the fighting to the middle for field repairs, Ironwood frowned as he accessed the damage. Either they were insanely unlucky or Hyperion had a weapon capable of lining up accurate shots in high planetary orbit over a vast distance usual for such engagements. Fortunately, projectile speed was still a factor and maneuvering out of the way seemed to help, so he quickly issued the order to constantly change position and direction for the Lance craft in that area.

Thin atmosphere around his own ship burst with flaming tracers, the only warning of hyper-accelerated rounds whizzing past. A few hit the layered shields, but none too strongly to break even the first. The floor under his feet rumbled as even the flagship hastened to obey his latest command; no questions or debate, but military precision from his navy. James Ironwood rarely felt such pride and gratification as he did right now, knowing how far ahead his own troops were, compared to Vladof's disorganised fanatics or almost robotic disinterest and lack of imagination among Hyperion personnel. Those guys would be burning Dust for little gain a long time before they would even think of changing tactics.

Another red warning flashed in the corner of his vision, this time from one of his own ships. Whatever the disturbance was onboard, it persisted throughout their brief stay over Pandora almost from the very beginning and now happened to shift from the cargo bay towards more crucial areas of the vessel. James felt a minute urge to take the field himself in his recently developed Paladin battle mech against this nuisance, but quashed it ruthlessly. He was exactly where he was needed at the moment, and a lot more depended upon his command then a single infantry engagement. He spared a movement of a finger to dispatch some of the obsolete AK-130 bots hibernating across the fleet; maybe they will slow intruders down until he had time to deal with the issue, personally.

Not that the battle raged as fiercely as it did a minute ago, he had to admit after another sweep of the battlelines. The Schnee monstrosity moved away, following a badly damaged Dahl flagship as it tried to flee, peppering it with missiles, railguns, lasers and artillery bombardment from a stupidly overpowered rapid-fire Dust cannon. Most Dahl fighter craft have similarly abandoned their positions to reinforce the depleted cruiser defensive force.

"IMMA FIRIN MAH LAZOR!" The cybernetic espionage and communication suite kindly screamed into his brain a new bit of intelligence as soon as it was intercepted.

That doofus Torgue launched another devastating attack, against Vladof this time, and a lot of small one-man fighters veered off to pursue a retreating space-truck around the dark side of the moon. Judging from similar engagement by Hyperion earlier, only Torgue will emerge on the other side a few minutes later. James Ironwood rarely felt such anticipation and eagerness as he did right now. With the major part of small and agile vessels gone, both due to his maneuver earlier and Torgue's timely intervention, the Vladof's remaining fleet could be outflanked now; his hands orchestrated an unheard symphony only he could perceive in a mad dance of swift and precise movements.

As his main battleships moved into range and opened fire, he was finally able to pinpoint the feeling that permeated his whole being at that moment.

For the first time in forever, James Ironwood felt _alive_.

* * *

Blake was not having a good day.

The clones dotted around the forest were slaughtered en masse by the veritable tide of Grimm and massacred them in turn. The shadow residue they left enveloped bigger specimens, slowing them down for other clones to strike and take down, yet she was still ceding ground rapidly despite her best efforts. The front had buckled in many places and she hurried to reinforce those spots lest the beasts broke through. It was a stopgap measure at best. Another minute, and they will reach the outer edge of the trees, toppled and snapped by multiple blast waves from the big fight in the clearing. Another set of clones busied themselves to make a barricade from fallen trunks and bigger branches there, sharpening them into spears and digging them into the soil for the Grimm to skewer themselves upon. But after that, nothing stood between a horde of nightmarish monsters and her tired teammates who already had their hands full with a beast of legend.

A touch at the wrist, and she faded from view with the help of her invisibility suit. A thought, and a rapid series of clones took her all over the battlefield, giving her an update on all combatants.

Yang was the heart of a fiery tempest, her footsteps whispering the tidings of doom for anyone foolish enough to try and stop her march. Ruby, all but a blur, circling around the Typhon and bisecting tentacles left, right and center. Weiss, curled into a ball with her eyes tightly shut, combating information overload from the many minions she was directing far below her airborne glyph. And finally, the creature itself that Blake observed from atop some rubble beneath the cliff. Its constant nauseous screeching filled the air and its flailing limbs demolished the ground itself in an attempt to crush its opponents. The main threat, however, was in multiple heads reaching towards the sky, chaining a number of powerful attacks one after the other from above. Fortunately, most of those were directed at the water elementals hacking at the beast, but the number of knights have been steadily dropping for some time now and it was only a matter of luck before her teammates got hurt instead.

Speaking of which… a moment later Blake was kneeling atop Weiss' glyph, visible again. She whispered "move" and with a gentle touch indicated a direction. Gambol Shroud sung in her hands as they sped across the sky, dropping a number of pursuing Nevermores out of the air and gouging the wing of the diving Stone Talon. It tumbled past, trying, and failing, to righten itself all the way down, until with a thump it was splattered on the uprooted rocks below. "Safe", she murmured, and dissipated into shadows.

One of the main heads pushed past the veritable wall of black sludge the monster encircled itself with and opened its maw, preparing another strike. Ruby didn't waste any time and teleported right next to it, Crescent Rose on the ready to bash a few enormous teeth in. As if waiting for that moment, a vortex formed in Typhon's throat, hoovering all the air and dust into a pinprick, the torrent of air picking up Ruby from the ground and dragging her helplessly inside. Blake's clones appeared around the girl then, tethering themselves to the vicious teeth and holding out the onslaught, shielding their leader with their own bodies from the flaying winds and debris, until just as suddenly as it started, the pull stopped. Ruby disappeared in a flurry of rose petals and Blake followed suit as soon as she was able.

"That was… unexpected." Ruby took a few deep breaths, hands on her knees, the scythe falling to the ground.

"It's adapting to our tactics." Blake turned around just in time to see the vortex head raise itself far above the melee and swivel towards the approaching flame storm. "And now it's going after Yang", she realised with horror. Her sharp eyes focused on the tiny globe the size of a nut that sped like a bullet from the creature's mouth, so dense and fast it curved the debris behind itself in a vortex. The rush of fire hid the impact point from view, but the blinding flash and blast wave made it irrelevant. The firestorm wobbled and collapsed a moment later, washing over the earth and scorching it further. In the middle of white-hot wreckage a figure tumbled through the air and Blake made her next move, Gambol Shroud already mid-motion when she burst into smoke.

The ribbon on her weapon caught fire despite Aura coating. The overwhelming heat Yang radiated seeped into _everything_ on some basic level that even the soul itself was unable to withstand. Blake redoubled her efforts to redirect the human comet into the beast before the string snapped. She could feel her arms almost tear out of sockets at the strain. With a final growl she finished the turn and collapsed on the steaming ground to try and regain a bit of breath.

"You okay?" Ruby appeared out of thin air next to her, concern clear on her face.

"Sure," Blake rolled her shoulders back and forth and scrambled towards the gun part of Gambol Shroud laying nearby. The strip around her ears made an excellent substitute for the ribbon - precisely why she wore it in the first place - and she hurried to repair the damaged weapon. Ruby opened her mouth, clearly not convinced, but Blake cut her off. "We have no time to waste," she declared and disappeared into shadows once more.

Indeed, the forest jumble shifted all the way to the barricade already. She replenished her diminished forces with new clones, setting them up in the trees just as much as at a ground level to try and stem the tide with crossfire. Her body ached from Semblance overuse, her Aura dwindled from constant physical strain, her gun had less reach with the new cloth. Blake paid it all no mind. She would watch over her team and protect them, always, no matter what, just like she promised. A blink, and her perspective shifted yet again.

* * *

Those strange doors that were not doors smoothly broke apart and slid away, the first time in a millennia of disuse, yet no worse for wear, revealing a grand chamber cast in a violet light inside the cavernous mountain. Raven cautiously stepped through, her hand resting on the sword hilt, her senses expanding to cover the vast opening and her instincts readied to both attack and defend as needed.

Nothing moved in the ruins.

She stopped for a moment to admire the majestic sight, trying to imagine the broken spires and toppled buildings as they were before, when Eridians yet lived and flourished. Bigger than any human dwelling on any planet they settled, it dwarfed even the Remnant Kingdoms in size. The population of this underground metropolis must have been tremendous.

Nothing moved in the ruins.

The tattoos on her left side flared with brilliant blue light, and her next step delivered Raven right on the first step of the triangular obelisk dominating the plaza before the alien city. It felt… improper… not to make her ascent over the floating steps in her search for knowledge and power. As if the whole city could observe her and judge her and decide her fate based on this little ritual.

Nothing moved in the ruins.

The Eridian writing near the top proved to be as enigmatic as it was on the scraps humanity was able to find here and there; even the best Remnant specialists dedicated to the task have been stumped in their attempts to decipher it. Raven circled around the obelisk, looking for anything that may catch her eye or call out to her Siren heritage. It was almost until the other side from the entrance that the writing changed.

"It can't be..." Her hand reached out to trace the hieroglyphs covering the wall. There was no mistaking it, no other possibility remained; the stick figures depicted here were familiar. Human. People she met, people she knew of, people she liked and hated and many more, besides. Finally, her hand reached the center of the picture, the symbol of an upside-down "V" in a circle. At her touch, it lit up with an otherworldly glow.

Something moved in the ruins behind her.

* * *

Ruby glanced around the battlefield with worried eyes, trying to spot the familiar black shape darting around, but as usual, it proved futile. Blake would be seen only when she wished to be seen and not a moment sooner, nor later.

A step, and the reality around her tore like tissue paper under the pressure of her will. Another step stretched into a run, and a run turned into a dash so rapid that the background blended into a swirl of colors. There was a point to Yang's nonchalant and yet steady advance; likewise, Blake's stunt was orchestrated, a basic trick perfected long ago. Now that their roles have been completed, it was Ruby's turn to exploit a gaping hole left behind an overcharged Yang barreling at high speed through their target. Crescent Rose whispered in the wind as she spun like a corkscrew behind her sister, shredding the scorched insides into mincemeat and her Semblance only speeding her up as she went.

And then, the darkness suddenly parted on the other side of the beast. Dauntless, Ruby activated the teleporter she left behind and charged into the breach again. One side to the other, again and again, until it had no guts left to tear apart - or, at least, that was the idea.

The first sign of trouble came at her fifth run, when the scythe glanced from bone in a place where meat was just a second before. On a sixth try, the hardened plating sprung up everywhere inside the creature, sharp edges threatening her every move, and on a seventh, her momentum died completely from inhuman resilience the beast suddenly possessed. Ruby activated the teleporter one last time to get out and away from the sludge that was quickly filling what gaps had remained.

Unmoving and disoriented, she was an easy target for a follow-up strike. Another tentacle lash from the Typhon almost looked lazy, yet hit like a train, catapulting her away from the beast. Adjusting her flight path with a shot, Ruby twisted in the air to get a good angle on the cliff and run it down towards her teammates.

"That thing's like a jelly, shrugs off anything I try," she complained to Blake as they dug Yang out of the broken and collapsed cliff face. The ground shuddered as the Typhon hammered another water construct into wet puddle, and a stream of rubble showered them from above. Barely any knights remained to distract the Grimm. Ruby sliced another rock in half and jammed the butt end of her scythe to lever it out of the way. Finally, a groan reached their ears.

"Yang in there, sis!"

A fist in a golden bracelet punched it's way through the surface, followed by another. The blond crawled her way out into the open, and Ruby released a sigh of relief.

"Philistine. It's a waste if you can't make it a punchline." Yang squinted at the sun. "By the way, where's Weiss? It doesn't look like a _reigny_ day without her."

Blake silently pointed upwards, where a line of glyphs stretched into a makeshift ladder. A few jumps and a short time later team RWBY was finally reunited.

"You know, it would be a grand idea if you've devised a plan to deal with the Typhon before my Dust runs out." Weiss still looked a bit cross-eyed, her hands jerking in phantom movements, yet the tone left no doubt as to her feelings. Ruby glanced at Yang, in her dusty and torn clothing, clearly past her best moment, and then at Blake, the Faunus' resolute glare not hiding the exhaustion she felt.

Ruby hesitated. It was apparent that the rapid pace they set was wearing her teammates down. They would still fight, if needed, but tired people made mistakes… and against the opponent they had, a single mistake was all it would take. The beast let out a triumphant shriek, having finally finished with the constructs, and the heads pivoted to the girls with uncanny precision.

"No worries. I can take it up another notch." A smirk made it to Ruby's face, her Aura flaring at some internal prodding. She grasped deeper still, into the very essence of her being, of what made her, _her_. Reality broke as she stepped forward, and then it broke again and again as Ruby continued to apply her Semblance, inscribing her will onto the material world around her in waves of shattered dimensions.

 _For it is in passing, that we achieve immortality._

Another step took her beyond the glyph's edge onto thin air high above the battlefield, and yet she did not plummet. Unimaginable forces pulled at her, tearing her asunder, and yet the glowing Aura kept her whole.

 _Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all._

Space bent around the girl and light traveled in unnatural ways through it. New rules governed here, and still she continued to press her power forward, mounting the pressure until all veneers of substance and imagination mixed into fine powder that she molded with determination into building blocks of her new existence.

 _...Infinite in distance and unbound by death..._

She could feel the deep weariness creeping into her very soul for this violation; a heavy price swelling to be paid later. She cared little for it, now.

 _..._ _ **I release your soul**_ _..._

With a snap, it all returned back into focus down below - the Typhon, the scourge of Grimm pouring from the forest, her teammates taking a stand against the tide - and a little extra, that she carried with her from the beyond.

 _...AND WITH MY SWORD, PROTECT THEE._

A single step took her a long distance, a gigantic white cloak now flaring dramatically over her colossal form. The great monster rose to match her, and Ruby whirled the immense scythe with a tortured scream of air flinching away from the lethal edge. Where her steps touched the ground, it evaporated; where the titanic blade passed, nothing remained, erased from existence as completely and utterly as it possibly could. Skeletal hand guided ethereal Crescent Rose yet again, and now it was the Typhon that felt its fatal touch - and recoiled in agony, unable to bear the mark of death the blade delivered. A monstrous chunk of flesh fell with a ponderous thud onto the ground, irrevocably severed and abandoned by the retreating monster.

Ruby followed, implacable and resolute, her mother's words urging her on.

* * *

 _Hey, Marcus? Why am I glowing like that?_


End file.
